Monday, May 30, 2016

CLIMBING EVEREST WITHOUT OXYGEN

The following is a response to  Climbing Everest Without Oxygen in the Washington Post, Health and Science section, 23rd May, 2016

With all due respect to talented Ms. Arnot, Mr. Viesturs, Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, et cetera, even more impressive than climbing Everest without oxygen is independently climbing her without support from the 'Tigers of the Snow' --Sherpa guides and route-developers, porters, chefs and cooking crew and additional personnel.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The Art of Healing, Tibetan Style

Sowa Rigpa, The Tibetan Art of Healing (http://ecs.com.np/culture/sowa-rigpa-the-tibetan-art-of-healing) in the current issue of ECS Nepal (online 20th May, 2016)

Photo by Alonzo Lyons

Photo by Alonzo Lyons

Photo by Alonzo Lyons

Photo by Alonzo Lyons

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Not My Drone President

"I'm really good at killing people" -Barack Obama


Lyrics to the above embedded song Bomb the World by Michael Franti and Spearhead from their album Everyone Deserves Music (Power to the Peaceful),
Please, tell me the reason
Behind the colors that you fly
Love just one nation
And the whole world, we divide
You won't say, you're sorry
There is no other choice
God bless the people now
Who cannot raise their voice
We can chase down all our enemies
Bring them to their knees
We can bomb the world to pieces
But we can't bomb it into peace
Whoa, we may even find a solution
To hunger and disease
We can bomb the world to pieces
But we cant bomb it into peace
Violence brings one thing
More more of the same
Military madness
The smell of flesh and burning pain
So I sing out to the masses
Stand up if you're still sane
To all of us gone crazy
I sing this one refrain
We can chase down all our enemies
Bring them to their knees
We can bomb the world to pieces
But we cant bomb it into peace
Whoa, we may even find a solution
To hunger and disease
We can bomb the world to pieces
But we cant bomb it into peace
And I sing power to the peaceful
Love to the peaceful y'all
Power to the peaceful
Love to the peaceful y'all
We may even find a solution
To hunger and disease
We can bomb the world to pieces
But we cant bomb it into peace
Say we can chase down all our enemies
We can even bring them to their knees
We can bomb the world into pieces
But we can't bomb it into peace
And I sing power to the peaceful
Love to the peaceful y'all
I sing power to the peaceful
Love to the peaceful y'all
I sing

 #NeoChickenHawk  

Sunday, May 15, 2016

"I am really good at killing people"

The New York Times reports on May 14th, 2016, For Obama, an Unexpected Legacy of Two Full Terms at War

Obama "will leave behind an improbable legacy as the only president  [Nobel Peace Prize Winner] in American history to serve two complete terms with the nation at war."

Remember, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 at the beginning of his presidency...."He has now been at war longer than Mr. Bush, or any other American president."

In fact the Drone President is reported to have quipped to his aides "I'm really good at killing people." Joke, boast or other (who says something like that?!), thousands of humans have died from US drone strikes, including innocent men, women and children...

Is this a legacy of a Nobel Peace Prizewinner?


"Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
And brought in matter that should feed this fire;And now 'tis far too huge to be blown outWith that same weak wind which enkindled it."
King JohnAct V, scene 2, line 83, W. Shakespeare

"Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out...and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel. ..And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for 'the universal brotherhood of man' --with his mouth." What Is Man? Mark Twain

"Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder." The Crisis, Thomas Paine

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Deadbeat Donor Darlings

Photo by Alonzo Lyons at Tribhuvan International Airport
Deadbeat donor darlings, what are you doing in the Himalayan paradise of Nepal, especially if operating without language and culture skills?

If nothing else, please consider the effects of your personal intervention on the personal lives of many, of a long-suffering people and their cultural ethos.

Consider this, foreign agents like you have been operational in Nepal for six decades. Nepal currently has over 50,000 I/NGOs…what are the results regarding poverty metrics and development indices? Nepal is or very nearly is a failed state, and the people are suffering in many lethal ways for want of good governance while aid typically abets dysfunction and foments a donor mentality that stifles self-determination, free-enterprise, creativity, and industry--all craved by people in want of personal freedoms including economic freedom.

Perhaps the trekker’s maxim can provide better guidance: “The Himalaya might change you, please do not change them.”

Photo by Alonzo Lyons in the Himalaya
Otherwise, deadbeat donors...isn't it about time to go home? 


Lyrics to the above embedded song Time to Go Home by Michael Franti and Spearhead from their album Yell Fire! (Power to the Peaceful),

Those who start wars, never fight them
And those who fight wars, they never like them
And those who write laws, they can recite them
And those of us who just fight laws
We live and die them

But I know, they never gonna tell you why, no
They only wanna tell you lies, no
Never ever gonna tell you why, no
They only wanna tell you lies, no
Never ever gonna tell you why, no
They only wanna tell you lies
It's time
It's time to go home

Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
It's time to go home
Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
Don't take our boys away, no

Those who build walls are pretending
That forever they can defend them (No, no, no)
Those who dam streams can build fountains (Yes they can)
But those of us who just let them run free
We can move mountains

But I know, they never gonna tell you why, no
They only wanna tell you lies, no
Never ever gonna tell you why, no
They only wanna tell you lies, no
Never ever gonna tell you why, no
They only wanna tell you lies
It's time
It's time to go home

Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
It's time to go home
Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
Don't take our boys away, no

(It's time, it's time!)
How many people were they runnin' from and
How many people never saw it comin'
How many people never heard the warnin'
How many people never stayed at home and
How many people never heard the callin'
How many people never saw it all and
How many people did they spend it on and
How many people got to sing the song and
How many people never heard the cry and
How many people gotten pushed aside
How many people never saw the dust fly
How many people never said goodbye and
How many people never saw the fall and
How many people did we end it all and
How many people never saw the wrong and
How many people did we drop the bomb on

Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
Don't take our boys away, no
Don't take our girls away, no
Don't take our boys away
It's time
It's time to go home!

Away
Away
Away
Away
Away
Away
Away
Away

Bigger and Tastier Fish to Fry?

Photo by Alonzo Lyons
Yes, the Nepali people have much bigger and tastier fish to fry, and instead are caught up dealing with an entitled, self-absorbed ruling gang and legions of meddling foreign agents-- most interventionists bent on 'fixing' this faraway land have few to no culture and language skills – deadbeat donors

Meanwhile, the downtrodden people have long faced chronic poverty and its many ills while under the thumb of apartheid, really, for centuries. The ruling gang and its enablers have all but destroyed the cultural ethos and country itself. 

The dysfunctional system is as disastrous as a Marxist nightmare.  An entitled gang has controlled the state and resources for the foreseeable past including the police, military, judges, hospitals, schools, media, commerce, land and obviously wealth and power. Citizens are subjugated to this entitled ruling gang and have next to nothing including few rights for self-determination and instead are dictated to by the state, elitists and even by an endless phalanx of unaware foreigners operating in Nepal.

Government gangsters and development schemes have stifled human rights including the freedom of self-determination, industry, creativity and free enterprise. The people are totally subjugated to the custodians of 'development'. They have next to nothing including few human rights and little freedom to do any enterprise on their own -- instead they face insurmountable hurdles including prohibitive fees and bureaucratic red tape with non-transparent rules and regulations that gives leverage for graft and extracting bribes.

The aid schemes that play along with the dysfunction are a warped socialist experiment that have six decades of non-success on poverty metrics and development indices, and in sum, it is worse than any Marxist nightmare.

The entitled elite control the state and foreigners play into the dysfunctional system by either trying to take the place of broken elements, and in doing so bolstering the buffer between reality and crony socialism…the ruling gang thereby has no motivation or need to answer to the people... or by warping society by enabling dysfunction  with outside funds going directly to the wrong places and into the wrong hands and instilling a donor mentality where little gets done without a pledge of aid funds (earthquake reconstruction is crippled by this mentality).

How about striving for human rights with the right to be free of government and foreign meddlers and their costly, lethal interference?


Photo by Alonzo Lyons
Photo by Alonzo Lyons
#globaldev #nepal #cronysocialism #deadbeatdonors

Monday, May 9, 2016

East versus West on Everest?

NBC News published Mount Everest Guide Services Warn About Cut-Rate Competitors
by on 8th May 2016.

The author mentions an East versus West conflict on Everest. Actually, more well-aimed might be to target Nepal's government gangsters. They eat over half of the Everest pie in fees and bribes and offer no real benefits to fee-payers in return (except nominal permission to climb) and no benefits to the nation itself. 

That might be the driving force behind any conflict at higher elevations. The massive fees collected by government gangsters do not reach the people of Nepal, especially the deserving locals in Sagarmatha National Park, the region of Solu-Khumbu where expeditions operate. 

The huge amounts paid by outfitters and mountaineers in government fees are essentially lost to corruption and take away from potential earnings of all workers on the mountain including Sherpa guides.

Would there still be a supposed conflict between climbers and support crew without the government graft that is illegitimately taking away from hardworking outfitters, guides, porters, cooks and other staff and other local businesses and residents, too?


Photo by Alonzo Lyons
Photo by Alonzo Lyons
Photo by Alonzo Lyons